Posters: 'Cat lovers deserve to die'

SEATTLE -- Some strange, provocative posters have been popping up throughout Seattle lately, and despite their morbid message, the posters seem to have a deeper purpose.

The images, which have been laminated on public pay phones in Belltown, Queen Anne and Magnolia, don't beat around the bush. One depicts a woman staring vacantly at the camera with the words "Cat lovers deserve to die" in large print.

Others carry a similar message: Hipters, the tattooed, crazy old aunts and the genetically privileged all deserve to die.

Most people don't seem to know what to make of the posters.

"It definitely catches your attention, but I'm not sure what they're trying to do with 'hipsters deserve to die,'" one passerby said.

It appears some people were offended enough by the posters to tear them down. Posters that were up in Queen Anne on Thursday were gone on Friday, and a Magnolia woman posted online that she removed another.

A quick online search takes you to website called NoOneDeservesToDie.org, which shows all the posters and features a countdown clock and a message that reads, "Every year over 160,000 lives are lost to a deadly disease. They didn't ask for it, but many people seem to think they deserved it."

The website doesn't say what the disease is, but research shows that 160,000 is the number of lung cancer deaths in the United States.

While shining a spotlight on a deadly disease is never a bad thing, not everyone is convinced the campaign is going to help.

"I'm a health care student," one person said. "This is a really whacked out way to advertise something related to health."